Brawley, California
Brawley is a city in the Imperial Valley and within Imperial County, southern California, United States. The population was 24,953 at the 2010 census, up from 22,052 in 2000; the town has a significant cattle and feed industry, hosts the annual Cattle Call Rodeo. Year-round agriculture is an important economic activity in Brawley. Summer daytime temperatures exceed 105 °F; the Imperial Land Company laid out the town in 1902 and named it Braly in honor of J. H. Braly, who owned the land. After Braly refused to permit the use of his name, the name was changed to Brawley; the first post office at Brawley opened in 1903. Incorporated in 1908, it was a "tent city" of only 100 persons involved in railroads and the earliest introduction of agriculture, it had a population of 11,922 in 1950, but population growth was slow from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Brawley is located in the Colorado Lower Colorado River Valley regions; the city's elevation, like other Imperial Valley towns, is below sea level. It is 13 miles north of El Centro, about 70 miles west of Yuma, Arizona, 95 miles southeast of Palm Springs and 130 miles east of San Diego.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Brawley has a total area of 7.7 square miles. All is land within the city limits, except for the Alamo River and New River that seasonally flow through the city; the New River has been reported as the most polluted river in North America. Average January temperatures in Brawley are a high of 69.4 °F or 20.8 °C and a low of 38.9 °F or 3.8 °C. Average July temperatures are a high of 107.6 °F or 42.0 °C and a low of 75.2 °F or 24.0 °C. On average, 177.0 afternoons during the year have 32 °C or higher. The record high temperature was 122 °F on July 1, 1950, the record low temperature was 4 °F on January 1, 1919. Average annual precipitation is 2.65 inches with an average of 13 days with measurable precipitation. December is the wettest month of the year; the wettest year was 1939 with 8.18 inches, while the driest year was 1953, in which no measurable precipitation fell in Brawley. The most rainfall in one month was 6.75 inches in September 1939. The most rainfall in 24 hours was 3.90 inches on October 10, 1932.
A rare snowfall in December 1932 brought a total of 3.0 inches. The 2010 United States Census reported that Brawley had a population of 24,953; the population density was 3,248.4 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Brawley was 13,570 White, 510 African American, 241 Native American, 349 Asian, 32 Pacific Islander, 9,258 from other races, 993 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 20,344 persons; the Census reported that 24,779 people lived in households, 63 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, 111 were institutionalized. There were 7,623 households, out of which 3,827 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 3,932 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,560 had a female householder with no husband present, 543 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 589 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, 23 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,346 households were made up of individuals and 550 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.
The average household size was 3.25. There were 6,035 families; the population was spread out with 8,138 people under the age of 18, 2,670 people aged 18 to 24, 6,065 people aged 25 to 44, 5,572 people aged 45 to 64, 2,508 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.2 males. There were 8,231 housing units at an average density of 1,071.5 per square mile, of which 7,623 were occupied, of which 3,970 were owner-occupied, 3,653 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.0%. 12,950 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 11,829 people lived in rental housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 22,052 people, 6,631 households, 5,265 families residing in the city; the population density was 3,783.0 people per square mile. There were 7,038 housing units at an average density of 1,207.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 52.8% White, 2.5% Black or African American, 1.1% Native American, 1.3% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 37.9% from other races, 4.3% from two or more races.
73.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 6,631 households out of which 48.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.0% were married couples living together, 17.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 20.6% were non-families. 17.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.1% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.3 and the average family size was 3.7. In the city, the population was spread out with 34.5% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 18.1% from 45 to 64, 9.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $31,277, the median income for a family was $35,514. Males had a median income of $34,617 versus $25,064 for females. T
University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, United States. It is the flagship university of the University of Colorado system and was founded five months before Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876. In 2015, the university comprised nine colleges and schools and offered over 150 academic programs and enrolled 17,000 students. Twelve Nobel Laureates, nine MacArthur Fellows, 20 astronauts have been affiliated with CU Boulder as students, researchers, or faculty members in its history; the university received nearly $454 million in sponsored research in 2010 to fund programs like the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, JILA. The Colorado Buffaloes compete in 17 varsity sports and are members of the NCAA Division I Pac-12 Conference; the Buffaloes have won 28 national championships: 20 in skiing, seven total in men's and women's cross country, one in football. 900 students participate in 34 intercollegiate club sports annually as well. On March 14, 1876, the Colorado territorial legislature passed an amendment to the state constitution that provided money for the establishment of the University of Colorado in Boulder, the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, the Colorado Agricultural College in Fort Collins.
Two cities competed for the site of the University of Colorado: Cañon City. The consolation prize for the losing city was to be home of the new Colorado State Prison. Cañon City was at a disadvantage as it was the home of the Colorado Territorial Prison; the cornerstone of the building that became Old Main was laid on September 20, 1875. The doors of the university opened on September 5, 1877. At the time, there were few high schools in the state that could adequately prepare students for university work, so in addition to the University, a preparatory school was formed on campus. In the fall of 1877, the student body consisted of 15 students in the college proper and 50 students in the preparatory school. There were 38 men and 27 women, their ages ranged from 12–23 years. During World War II, Colorado was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a navy commission; the main CU Boulder campus is located south of the Pearl Street Mall and east of Chautauqua Auditorium.
It consists of residential buildings as well as research facilities. The East Campus is about a quarter mile from the main campus and is composed of athletic fields and research buildings. CU Boulder's distinctive architecture style, known as Tuscan Vernacular Revival, was designed by architect Charles Klauder; the oldest buildings, such as Old Main and Macky Auditorium, were in the Collegiate Gothic style of many East Coast schools, Klauder's initial plans for the university's new buildings were in the same style. A month or so after approval, Klauder updated his design by sketching in a new wrap of rough, textured sandstone walls with sloping, multi-leveled red-tiled roofs and Indiana limestone trim; this formed the basis of a unified style, used in the design of fifteen other buildings between 1921 and 1939 and still followed on the campus to this day. The sandstone used in the construction of nearly all the buildings on campus was selected from a variety of Front Range mountain quarries.
In 2011, Travel+Leisure named the Boulder campus one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States. Freshmen and others attending the University of Colorado Boulder have an option of 24 on- and off-campus residence halls. Residence halls have 17 varieties of room types from singles to four-person rooms and others with apartment style amenities. There are several communities of residence halls located throughout the campus, as well as in a separate area called Williams Village, located 1.5 miles off of main campus. There is a free bus service that transports students to main campus from Williams Village and vice versa; the University offers Residential Academic Programs in many of its Residence Halls. RAPs provide students with in-dorm classes tailored to academic interests; the Engineering Center on the North-East side of campus houses the nation's largest geotechnical centrifuge as well as ion-implantation and microwave-propagation facilities, spectrometers and other microscopes, a structural analysis facility.
Until 1903, the library collection was housed with the rest of the school in Old Main. The growing size of the library required a move, as the weight of the books was causing physical damage to the floor; the cornerstone for the first separate library building was laid in January 1903, the building was opened in January 1904. When the new Norlin Library opened in 1940, the old library turned over to the Theatre department, was converted into classrooms and a theatre. Norlin Library was the last building to be designed by Klauder. There are two inscriptions on the western face of the building. Both were composed by President Norlin; the larger inscription reads "Who knows only his own generation remains always a child," based on a Cicero quotation, while the smaller inscription on the marble just over the door reads "Enter here the timeless fellowship of the human spirit." Macky Auditorium is a large building on the north edge of the University of Colorado campus, near 17th Street and University Avenue, which plays host to various talks and musical performances.
Andrew J. Macky was a prominent businessman involved with the town of Boulder in the late 19th century. Macky
Anti-gravity
Anti-gravity is a theory of creating a place or object, free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism or aerodynamic lift. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction in the context of spacecraft propulsion. Examples are the gravity blocking substance "Cavorite" in H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon and the Spindizzy machines in James Blish's Cities in Flight. In Newton's law of universal gravitation, gravity was an external force transmitted by unknown means. In the 20th century, Newton's model was replaced by general relativity where gravity is not a force but the result of the geometry of spacetime. Under general relativity, anti-gravity is impossible except under contrived circumstances. Quantum physicists have postulated the existence of gravitons, massless elementary particles that transmit gravitational force, but the possibility of creating or destroying these is unclear.
"Anti-gravity" is used to refer to devices that look as if they reverse gravity though they operate through other means, such as lifters, which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields. In 1948 businessman Roger Babson formed the Gravity Research Foundation to study ways to reduce the effects of gravity, their efforts were somewhat "crankish", but they held occasional conferences that drew such people as Clarence Birdseye known for his frozen-food products and Igor Sikorsky, inventor of the helicopter. Over time the Foundation turned its attention away from trying to control gravity, to better understanding it; the Foundation nearly disappeared after Babson's death in 1967. However, it continues to run an essay award, offering prizes of up to $4,000; as of 2017, it is still administered out of Wellesley, Massachusetts, by George Rideout, Jr. son of the foundation's original director. Winners include California astrophysicist George F. Smoot, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics.
General relativity was introduced in the 1910s, but development of the theory was slowed by a lack of suitable mathematical tools. It appeared, it is claimed the US Air Force ran a study effort throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s. Former Lieutenant Colonel Ansel Talbert wrote two series of newspaper articles claiming that most of the major aviation firms had started gravity control propulsion research in the 1950s. However, there is little outside confirmation of these stories, since they take place in the midst of the policy by press release era, it is not clear how much weight these stories should be given, it is known that there were serious efforts underway at the Glenn L. Martin Company, who formed the Research Institute for Advanced Study. Major newspapers announced the contract, made between theoretical physicist Burkhard Heim and the Glenn L. Martin Company. Another effort in the private sector to master understanding of gravitation was the creation of the Institute for Field Physics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1956, by Gravity Research Foundation trustee Agnew H. Bahnson.
Military support for anti-gravity projects was terminated by the Mansfield Amendment of 1973, which restricted Department of Defense spending to only the areas of scientific research with explicit military applications. The Mansfield Amendment was passed to end long-running projects that had little to show for their efforts. Under general relativity, gravity is the result of following spatial geometry caused by local mass-energy; this theory holds that it is the altered shape of space, deformed by massive objects, that causes gravity, a property of deformed space rather than being a true force. Although the equations cannot produce a "negative geometry", it is possible to do so by using "negative mass"; the same equations do not, of themselves, rule out the existence of negative mass. Both general relativity and Newtonian gravity appear to predict that negative mass would produce a repulsive gravitational field. In particular, Sir Hermann Bondi proposed in 1957 that negative gravitational mass, combined with negative inertial mass, would comply with the strong equivalence principle of general relativity theory and the Newtonian laws of conservation of linear momentum and energy.
Bondi's proof yielded singularity free solutions for the relativity equations. In July 1988, Robert L. Forward presented a paper at the AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE 24th Joint Propulsion Conference that proposed a Bondi negative gravitational mass propulsion system. Bondi pointed out that a negative mass will fall toward "normal" matter, since although the gravitational force is repulsive, the negative mass responds by accelerating in the opposite of the direction of the force. Normal mass, on the other hand, will fall away from the negative matter, he noted that two identical masses, one positive and one negative, placed near each other will therefore self-accelerate in the direction of the line between them, with the negative mass chasing after the positive mass. Notice that because the negative mass acquires negative kinetic energy, the total energy of the accelerating masses remains at zero. Forward pointed out that the self-acceleration effect is due to the negative inertial mass, could be seen induced without the gravitational forces between the particles.
The Standard Model of particle physics, which describes all known forms of matter, does not include negative mass. Although cosmological dark matter may consist of particles
Future History (Heinlein)
The Future History, by Robert A. Heinlein, describes a projected future of the human race from the middle of the 20th century through the early 23rd century; the term Future History was coined by John W. Campbell, Jr. in the February 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Campbell published an early draft of Heinlein's chart of the series in the March 1941 issue. Heinlein wrote most of the Future History stories early in his career, between 1939 and 1941 and between 1945 and 1950. Most of the Future History stories written prior to 1967 are collected in The Past Through Tomorrow, which contains the final version of the chart; that collection does not include Common Sense. Groff Conklin called Future History "the greatest of all histories of tomorrow", it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966, along with the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Lensman series by E. E. Smith, the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, The Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien, but lost to Asimov's Foundation series.
For the most part, The Past Through Tomorrow defines a core group of stories that are within the Future History series. However, Heinlein scholars agree that some stories not included in the anthology belong to the Future History series, that some that are included are only weakly linked to it. James Gifford adds Time Enough for Love, published after The Past Through Tomorrow, "Let There Be Light", not included in The Past Through Tomorrow because the collection editor disliked it or because Heinlein himself considered it to be inferior. However, he considers Time Enough for Love to be a borderline case, he considers The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, To Sail Beyond the Sunset to be too weakly linked to the Future History to be included. Bill Patterson includes To Sail Beyond the Sunset, on the theory that the discrepancies between it and the rest of the Future History are explained by assigning it to the same "bundle of related timelines" in the World as Myth multiverse.
However, he lists a number of stories that he believes were never intended to be part of Future History though they were included in The Past Through Tomorrow: "Life-Line", "The Menace from Earth", "—We Also Walk Dogs", the stories published in the Saturday Evening Post. He agrees with Gifford; the story "—And He Built a Crooked House—" was included only in the pre-war chart and never since. The Heinlein juveniles do not hew to the Future History outline. Gifford states that "Although the twelve juvenile novels are not inconsistent with the Future History, neither do they form a thorough match with that series for adult readers, it is not recognized that they are a reasonably consistent'Future History' of their own... At least one major story specified in the Future History chart, the revolution on Venus, ended up being told in the framework of the juveniles as Between Planets." The novel Variable Star, written by Spider Robinson from Heinlein's detailed outline, incorporates some elements of both the Future History and the universe of the Heinlein juveniles.
The adult short story "The Long Watch", included in Future History story collections, connects to Space Cadet through the character of Ezra Dahlquist, the central character of the first, memorialized in the second. The following is a chronology of the Future History. Years are included to indicate. Stories that were planned but never written are noted. "Life-Line" "Let There Be Light" Word Edgewise"The Roads Must Roll" "Blowups Happen" "The Man Who Sold the Moon" "Delilah and the Space Rigger" "Space Jockey" "Requiem" "The Long Watch" "Gentlemen, Be Seated!" "The Black Pits of Luna" "It's Great to Be Back!" "—We Also Walk Dogs" "Searchlight" "Ordeal in Space" "The Green Hills of Earth"Fire Down Below"Logic of Empire" "The Menace from Earth"The Sound of His Wings Eclipse The Stone Pillow"If This Goes On—" "Coventry" "Misfit" "Universe" Methuselah's Children "Universe" Time Enough for Love To Sail Beyond the Sunset The chart published in the collection Revolt in 2100 includes several unwritten stories, which Heinlein describes in a postscript.
"Fire Down Below," about a revolution in Antarctica, would have been set in the early 21st century. Three more unwritten stories fill in the history from just before "Logic of Empire" in the early 21st century through the beginning of "If This Goes On—". "The Sound of His Wings" covers Nehemiah Scudder's early life as a television evangelist through his rise to power as the First Prophet. "Eclipse" describes independence movements on Venus. "The Stone Pillow" details the rise of the resistance movement from the early days of the theocracy through the beginning of "If This Goes On—". These stories were key points in the Future History, so Heinlein gave a rough description of Nehemiah Scudder
Classified information
Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, intentional mishandling of the material can incur criminal penalties. A formal security clearance is required to view or handle classified documents or to access classified data; the clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation. Documents and other information must be properly marked "by the author" with one of several levels of sensitivity—e.g. Restricted, confidential and top secret; the choice of level is based on an impact assessment. This includes security clearances for personnel handling the information. Although "classified information" refers to the formal categorization and marking of material by level of sensitivity, it has developed a sense synonymous with "censored" in US English. A distinction is made between formal security classification and privacy markings such as "commercial in confidence".
Classifications can be used with additional keywords that give more detailed instructions on how data should be used or protected. Some corporations and non-government organizations assign levels of protection to their private information, either from a desire to protect trade secrets, or because of laws and regulations governing various matters such as personal privacy, sealed legal proceedings and the timing of financial information releases. With the passage of time much classified information can become a bit less sensitive, or becomes much less sensitive, may be declassified and made public. Since the late twentieth century there has been freedom of information legislation in some countries, whereby the public is deemed to have the right to all information, not considered to be damaging if released. Sometimes documents are released with information still considered confidential obscured, as in the example at right; the purpose of classification is to protect information. Higher classifications protect information.
Classification formalises what constitutes a "state secret" and accords different levels of protection based on the expected damage the information might cause in the wrong hands. However, classified information is "leaked" to reporters by officials for political purposes. Several U. S. presidents have leaked sensitive information to get their point across to the public. Although the classification systems vary from country to country, most have levels corresponding to the following British definitions. Top Secret is the highest level of classified information. Information is further compartmented so that specific access using a code word after top secret is a legal way to hide collective and important information; such material would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if made publicly available. Prior to 1942, the United Kingdom and other members of the British Empire used Most Secret, but this was changed to match the United States' category name of Top Secret in order to simplify Allied interoperability.
The Washington Post reports in an investigation entitled Top Secret America, that per 2010 "An estimated 854,000 people... hold top-secret security clearances" in the United States. Secret material would cause "serious damage" to national security. In the United States, operational "Secret" information can be marked with an additional "LIMDIS", to limit distribution. Confidential material would cause "damage" or be prejudicial to national security if publicly available. Restricted material would cause "undesirable effects"; some countries do not have such a classification. Such a level is known as "Private Information". Official material forms the generality of government business, public service delivery and commercial activity; this includes a diverse range of information, of varying sensitivities, with differing consequences resulting from compromise or loss. OFFICIAL information must be secured against a threat model, broadly similar to that faced by a large private company; the OFFICIAL classification replaced the Confidential and Restricted classifications in April 2014 in the UK.
Unclassified is technically not a classification level, but this is a feature of some classification schemes, used for government documents that do not merit a particular classification or which have been declassified. This is because the information is low-impact, therefore does not require any special protection, such as vetting of personnel. A plethora of pseudo-classifications exist under this category. Clearance is a general classification, that comprises a variety of rules controlling the level of permission required to view some classified information, how it must be stored and destroyed. Additionally, access is restricted on a "need to know" basis. Possessing a clearance does not automatically authorize the individual to view all material classified at that level or below that level; the individual must present a legitimate "need to know" in addition to the proper level of clearance. In addition to the general risk-based classification levels, additional compartmented constraints on access exist, such as Special Intelligence, which protects intelligence sources and methods, No Foreign dissemination, which restricts dissemi
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U. S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Fantasy House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; the first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, text in a single column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine". F&SF became one of the leading magazines in the science fiction and fantasy field, with a reputation for publishing literary material and including more diverse stories than its competitors.
Well-known stories that appeared in its early years include Richard Matheson's Born of Man and Woman, Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee, a novel of an alternative history in which the South has won the American Civil War. McComas left for health reasons in 1954, but Boucher continued as sole editor until 1958, winning the Hugo Award for Best Magazine that year, a feat his successor, Robert Mills, repeated in the next two years. Mills was responsible for publishing Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, the first of Brian Aldiss's Hothouse stories; the first few issues featured cover art by George Salter, Mercury Press's art director, but other artists soon began to appear, including Chesley Bonestell, Kelly Freas, Ed Emshwiller. In 1962, Mills was succeeded as editor by Avram Davidson; when Davidson left at the end of 1964, Joseph Ferman, who had bought the magazine from Spivak in 1954, took over as editor, though his son Edward soon began doing the editorial work under his father's supervision.
At the start of 1966 Edward Ferman was listed as editor, four years he acquired the magazine from his father and moved the editorial offices to his house in Connecticut. Ferman remained editor for over 25 years, published many well-received stories, including Fritz Leiber's Ill Met in Lankhmar, Robert Silverberg's Born with the Dead, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. In 1991 he turned the editorship over to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who began including more horror and dark fantasy than had appeared under Ferman. In the mid-1990s circulation began to decline. Gordon Van Gelder replaced Rusch in 1997, bought the magazine from Ferman in 2001, but circulation continued to fall, by 2011 it was below 15,000. Charles Coleman Finlay took over from Van Gelder as editor in 2015; the first magazine dedicated to fantasy, Weird Tales, appeared in 1923. By the end of the 1930s, the genre was flourishing in the United States, nearly twenty new sf and fantasy titles appearing between 1938 and 1941; these were all pulp magazines, which meant that despite the occasional high-quality story, most of the magazines presented badly written fiction and were regarded as trash by many readers.
In 1941, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine appeared, edited by Fred Dannay and focusing on detective fiction. The magazine was published in digest format, rather than pulp, printed a mixture of classic stories and fresh material. Dannay attempted to avoid the sensationalist fiction appearing in the pulps, soon made the magazine a success. In the early 1940s Anthony Boucher, a successful writer of fantasy and sf and of mystery stories, got to know Dannay through his work on the Ellery Queen radio show. Boucher knew J. Francis McComas, an editor who shared his interest in fantasy and sf. By 1944 McComas and Boucher became interested in the idea of a fantasy companion to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, spoke to Dannay about it. Dannay was interested in the idea, but paper was scarce because of World War II; the following year Boucher and McComas suggested that the new magazine could use the Ellery Queen name, but Dannay knew little about fantasy and suggested instead that they approach Lawrence Spivak, the owner of Mercury Press, which published Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
In January 1946, Boucher and McComas went to New York and met with Spivak, who let them know in the year that he wanted to go ahead. At Spivak's request they began acquiring material for the new magazine, including a new story by Raymond Chandler, reprint rights to stories by H. P. Lovecraft, John Dickson Carr, Robert Bloch. Spivak planned the first issue for early 1947, but delayed the launch because of poor newsstand sales of digest magazines, he suggested that it should be priced at 35 cents an issue, higher than the original plan, to provide a financial buffer against poor sales. In May 1949 Spivak suggested a new title, The Magazine of Fantasy, in August a press release announced that the magazine would appear in October. On October 6, 1949, Boucher and McComas held a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Edgar Allan Poe and to launch "a new fantasy anthology periodical". Invitees included Carr, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff.
The first issue, published by Fantasy House, a subsidiary of American Mercury, sold 57,000 co
Orphans of the Sky
Orphans of the Sky is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, consisting of two parts: "Universe" and its sequel, "Common Sense"; the two novellas were first published together in book form in 1963. "Universe" was published separately in 1951 as a 10¢ Dell paperback. These works contain one of the earliest fictional depictions of a generation ship; the gigantic, cylindrical generation ship Vanguard destined for "Far Centaurus", is cruising without guidance through the interstellar medium as a result of a long-ago mutiny that killed most of the officers. Over time, the descendants of the surviving loyal crew have forgotten the purpose and nature of their ship and lapsed into a pre-technological culture marked by superstition, they come to believe the "Ship" is the entire universe, so that "To move the ship" is considered an oxymoron, references to the Ship's "voyage" are interpreted as religious metaphor. They are ruled by an oligarchy of "officers" and "scientists". Most crew members are simple illiterate farmers or never venturing to the "upper decks", where the "muties" dwell.
Among the crew, all identifiable mutants are killed at birth. The story centers upon a young man of insatiable curiosity, Hugh Hoyland, selected as an apprentice by a scientist; the scientists ritualistically perform the tasks required to maintain the Ship while remaining ignorant of their true functions. On a hunt for muties, Hugh is captured by them, he avoids getting eaten, instead becomes the slave of Joe-Jim Gregory, the two-headed leader of a powerful mutie gang. Joe and Jim have separate identities, but both are intelligent, between them have come to a crude understanding of the Ship's true nature. Having become convinced of the Ship's true purpose, Hugh persuades Joe-Jim to complete the Vanguard's mission of colonization, having noticed that there is a nearby star that Joe-Jim remember as growing larger over the years. Intent on this mission, he returns to the lower levels of the Ship to convince others to help him, but is arrested by his former boss Bill Ertz and sentenced to death, he is viewed as either insane or a unrecognized mutant – he was a borderline case at birth, with a head viewed as too large.
Hugh persuades his old friend. He shows a view of the stars. Convinced, Bill enlists the captain's aide, Phineas Narby, to Hugh's crusade. Inspired by one of Joe-Jim's favorite books, The Three Musketeers, they manufacture swords, superior to the daggers everyone else has, overthrow the captain and install Narby in his place, they embark on a campaign to bring the entire Ship under their control. But things go wrong. Narby never was only playing along as a means to gain power. Once in control, he treacherously sets out to eliminate the muties. Joe is killed in the fighting. Jim sacrifices himself to hold off their pursuers long enough for Hugh, Bill and their wives to get to a automated lifeboat. Hugh manages to land on the habitable moon of a gas giant; the colonists disembark to uneasily explore their alien surroundings. Avram Davidson described Orphans of the Sky as "a modern classic", praising "the magnitude and magnificence of Orphans' concepts" despite expressing disappointment in "the limitations of its conclusion".
Damon Knight said: "Nobody has improved on Universe, although a good many reckless people have tried, because Heinlein said it all." Algis Budrys said that "Many hands have worked at improving Heinlein's impeccable statement of this theme", with none succeeding until James White's The Watch Below. A paragraph at the start of the novel shows an excerpt from "The Romance of Modern Astrography", explaining that the ship was part of the "Proxima Centauri Expedition, sponsored by the Jordan Foundation in 2119". A discovered ship's log begins in June 2172. In Heinlein's novel Time Enough for Love, the Vanguard is mentioned as the sister ship of the New Frontiers, commandeered by the Howard Families in the novel Methuselah's Children, it never landed colonists there. The Vanguard has been discovered, with its crew long dead due to some unexplained failure in its mechanisms, its records destroyed or illegible, its path is traced back, the descendants of Hugh's people are found, flourishing as intelligent savages, on a planet which scientists dub "Pitcairn Island".
This was the only star where settlement was possible on the Vanguard's path. This conversation takes place in 4291, it is mentioned that the settlers have been there for 800 years. Another reference to Heinlein's Future History is a passage describing Joe-Jim's enthusiasm for the works of "Rhysling, the blind singer of the spaceways", a poet and the central character of the Heinlein story "The Green Hills of Earth". "Universe" was performed as a radio play on the NBC Radio Network programs Dimension X and X Minus One. These versions have several drastic changes to the story in their conclusions, in which Hugh is killed showing the crew of the Vanguard the true nature of the Ship. Two-headed humans do exist – one variation of conjoined twins; the physics of The Ship are correct: it spins to give artificial gravity, w
